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Jan 31, 2011

And the scarf is finished! Only final touches left - weave in the ends of both colors of the yarn on the stripes and take the photo "in action" ;))) I decided to add a little softness, I thought that it may be a little too blocky, like, say, a checkered pattern can be, if done in magnified manner. So, I added some crochet details on both ends, and miraculously the whole scarf looks much more gentle and feminine, such a small detail... ;)

I think I know why I love the stripe so much. It's a kind of manifestation of life itself in its brighter and darker times... ;) Love life!

Jan 30, 2011

Fashion is a mere "currently popular style". That is. Meaning, the style, that is adopted by the masses.

That's cool, - it gives a nice sense of belonging to a particular group, feeling of comfort comes along, we really get into it - mini, maxi, patterns, textures, colors... we, the masses, pick what to wear. Fashion changes constantly - boho-hippie today, art-deco tomorrow... are you a hippie, or do you play one? ;) There's no fashion committee in existence, which would tell us what to wear each season. There's no fashion conference, no debates on some higher level of a non-existing fashion government.

We ourselves choose to follow a certain look that appeals to us, our lifestyle etc. It is just a commercial derivative, really. The idea of following this trend (another term, eh? believe me, I've taken tests that had questions about all of these definitions, while studying at FIT) or another comes from the need to, for the lack of a better word, classifying of oneself, I believe. Voluntarily enslavement. Ah, I'm getting bored already!

But... I have a great appreciation for style.

Style means living. Style means being satisfied with yourself, it means full acceptance of your own personality with all its delightful quirks. Style is freedom.

Style is being yourself, style is goooood, style is beauty, style is kindness, if you will!

Now, please, recycle those shiny vogues and listen to yourself.

You are naturally beautiful! ;)

p.s. a huge perk of a consistent personal style over being fashionable: you don't have to spend any money! ;)

Yes, I love color, or better yet, a crazy cluster of it... but more than color I love off-white and black, especially when they are put together either by nature or you ;)

Here's a new scarf that I started to make yesterday while watching Dr. Who - I lasted 5 episodes!!! ;))))

Process goes rather slow - I've never made anything stripy before... every time you change the stripe color you have to cut off the previous yarn and begin knitting with the new color yarn - it's a tad time consuming... it's very time consuming ;))) But I'm loving the result - it's a perfect blend of:

Jan 29, 2011

I have a ball of yarn from Lion Brand, in "Fisherman". It's 100% wool, un-dyed yarn, you can see it below, the light doesn't do justice - it's a neutral color that is like white or black - goes with everything.

Sheesh, time flew by! I think I spent good 6 - 7 hours working on this place, also known as Earthia blog, making it more appealing to you and me.. And it looks like I succeeded :) Look to your right - everything is neat and convenient, isn't it? I changed the font - now it's more me, I think.. and the colors, added neat gadgets.

Grab a cup of your favorite drink and tune in to Earthia music, leaf through the blogs I find inspirational and useful, take a peak at my posts... make yourself comfortable, and when you're done, don't forget to come back! :)

hmmmm... now I wonder how to neatly incorporate some sort of frames around the pictures... or.. do I need them?? I'm trying to make reasonable decisions when it comes to your browser speed, - I want my page to load quick! ;)))

Jan 28, 2011

I, like any crafty artistic person, have scraps and pieces of remains of many projects and what not. For me it is mostly yarn and parts of deconstructed recycled sweaters (more about this soon)...

What is needed - a large enough crocheting hook and the leftover yarn of any possible color, texture and fiber content.

HOW-TO:

I personally like to crochet these awesome baskets through both yarns of the top of the previous row (those who crochet will know what I'm talking about), because it eliminates the lines around the piece.

Start off by making a chain of 4 stitches, make a circle, through the middle of it crochet 6-8, depending on the thickness of the yarn, stitches of the second row. Now in 3rd row crochet 2 stitches in every stitch of the previous row. 4th row - repeat what you did in the 3rd row. Starting row 5 you can start minimize the bottom of the future basket by making additions in only every other stitch. In this manner, going in circle, determine yourself from here on, how wide you want your basket to be, and depending on that, calculate how many stitches to add. As soon as you've reached the desired size of the bottom of the basket, start plainly crochet in circles, until it is as tall as you like. You can narrow the top of it a little by skipping some stitches. Also, I noticed, that when I fill my baskets with stuff, it becomes shorter and wider, if packed.. so, maybe make it a little taller than the desired height of the finished piece.

How brilliant such storage is, huh? ;) Just ply away those multiple strands of yarn - 4-6 of DK weight, 3-4 of chunky weight should do the trick for the baskets to keep their shape nicely.

I made one for all my stationary - nice and colorful; another one for loose change, quarters, mainly; and there's two more that keep my bathroom necessities and beauty products together.

Recently I watched Crusade: A March Through Time - cheesy movie with great costumes, and I got inspired by the bag one of the main characters was carrying.

Look at how perfectly fluffy and large it is!

Here's a shot of a part of half-ready bag of my own. I'm using Islandic Wool, which felts beautifully, - exactly what i need to bring all of the fibers closer together to make the bag strong and shapely. I am to wet felt it, after it's finished, for sure.

Delightfully blogging, still... it feels amazing to just be home, at my beloved iMac, for once. Black tea with a dash of cardamom, turbinado sugar and milk (run out of half-n-half, uneven seams!)... Listening to Bob Marley... Finding great inspiring everything everywhere!!! ;)

Here's what can be done with used crayons, you can create your own color confetti! Now if I only could find what to do with dried up play dough that my niece has laying in tiny bits of color splashes all over her play area ;) On the search for it!

Polina, my sweetest niece, loves to dance so much! I drum - she dances! And I better don't stop drumming haha ;)) Here she has a morning drawing session followed by some impromptu drumming session, which ended up in dancing of everyone in the room and, as a result, abandoning the camera.

I accidentally accomplished a mission, one of my missions, i should say hehee :)) I learned how to knit socks over the weekend, - and to tell you the truths, I have no idea what scared me to do this before - it's so easy!!! I've made two pairs - one for Danya, and the other one for Jenjka - she loved them.

Here's Dan's foot in the freshly backed sock! I'm planning on felting them and sewing a sole to the bottoms, so he can walk around the house in a warm pair of cozy things! ;)

And this is the before mentioned hat with lots (five) of pom-poms! The one on top is not visible, and the there are two pom-poms on the ends of the ties,.. but they are there, trust me ;)

I was at first going to see the beauty of the ocean surrounded by snow, here at Brighton beach, but decided to stay in instead with the subway not running well. All I wanna do today is blog, knit and sew, and surf the internet for inspiration. I do need though to feel the application for a Burning Man ticket and mail it, but the Post Offices seem to be closed... Ah! just had a sun ray hit through my window! ;)))

I find, that writing is a great great tool to lighten up ;) Even in this tiny bit i can feel like fresh energy enters me.

Here my girls at the beach, minus the one foot of snow that has fallen since.

Jenjka

Olya

Masha - кувыркаша!

Wishing them a joyous shenanigans in the snow!!! ;)

Yesterday I was going coming back from the weekend in Philadelphia, when the snow storm started - it felt great, by the way - no one on the streets, so quiet and peaceful. Here I'm wearing a ski goggles!!!